Eastern Asia

We ended our previous report on the issues plaguing the dialogue between the DPRK and the United States with the statement from 6 November by Kwon Jong Gun, the Roving Ambassador of the Foreign Ministry of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, on the fact that the USA and the ROK will hold joint military drills in December 2019. In this article, we will provide more details about the problems associated with such exercises in general, and about the extent of tensions at present.

The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), also called the New Silk Road, is based on a 2,100-year-old trade route between the Middle East and Eastern Asia, called the Silk Road. It wound its ways across the huge landmass Eurasia to the most eastern parts of China. It favored trading, based on the Taoist philosophy of harmony and peaceful coexistence – trading in the original sense of the term, an exchange with “win-win” outcomes, both partners benefitting equally.

For several years since the global push to develop mass-scale Electric Vehicles, the element Lithium has come intofocus as a strategic metal. Demand is enormous in China, in the EU and in the USA at present, and securing control over lithium supplies is already developing its own geopolitics not unlike that for the control of oil. 
China Moves to Secure Sources

While continuing to monitor reports on the confrontation between Seoul and Tokyo, we are attentively following what effect it is having on regional security. And first and foremost, the issue is whether South Korea will renew the General Security of Military Information Agreement (GSOMIA) with Japan or not.

With Beijing celebrating the 70th anniversary of the Chinese Communist Party’s rule, there’s been a heated discussion across the Western world about the role that China is going to play in the global affairs. Among those taking part in the discussion there’s been those pointing out to the growing military cooperation between Beijing and Moscow.

In response to China’s increasing political and economic clout in the region of South Asia, Washington has intensified its efforts to promote its concept of the free and open Indo Pacific.

One of the most noteworthy events that took place in the Indo-Pacific recently was, undoubtedly, the fourth plenary session of the 19th Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee (elected in October 2017), held from 28 to 31 October in Beijing.

Chinese military aircraft entering what is referred to as South Korea’s Air Defense Identification Zone (KADIZ) is something that constantly comes up when we discuss the problems affecting relations between China and South Korea, but this problem has recently started becoming even more serious.

After the first suspects in the case involving an attack on the North Korean Embassy in Madrid were identified, the author hoped that this would set the wheels in motion. However, since spring 2019 there have not been any news reports about it, and the ones published have been disappointing.